Tobit 3

Then in my grief I wept, and I prayed in anguish, saying,

“Righteous are you, O Lord; all your deeds are just and all your ways are mercy and truth, and you render true and righteous judgment for ever.

And now, O Lord, remember me and look favorably upon me; do not punish me for my sins and for my unwitting offenses and those which my fathers committed before you.

For we disobeyed your commandments, and you gave us over to plunder, captivity, and death; you made us the talk, the byword, and an object of reproach in all the nations among which you have dispersed us.

And now your many judgments are true in exacting penalty from me for my sins and those of my fathers, because we did not keep your commandments. For we did not walk in truth before you.

And now deal with me according to your pleasure; command my spirit to be taken up, that I may be released from the face of the earth and become dust. For it is better for me to die than to live, because I have heard false reproaches, and great is the sorrow within me. Command that I now be released from my distress; release me to go to the eternal abode; and do not, O Lord, turn your face away from me. For it is better for me to die than to see so much distress in my life and listen to such insults.”

On the same day, at Ecbatana in Media, it also happened that Sarah, the daughter of Raguel, was reproached by her father’s maids,

because she had been given to seven husbands, and the evil demon Asmodeus had slain each of them before he had been with her as his wife. So the maids said to her, “You are the one who kills your husbands! See, you already have had seven and have had no benefit from any of them.

Why do you beat us? Because your husbands are dead? Go with them! May we never see a son or daughter of yours!”

On that day she was deeply grieved in spirit and wept. When she had gone up to her father’s upper room, she intended to hang herself. But she thought it over and said, “Never shall they reproach my father, saying to him, ‘You only had one beloved daughter but she hanged herself because of her distress.’ And I shall bring his old age down in sorrow to the grave. It is better for me not to hang myself, but to pray the Lord that I may die and not listen to these reproaches any more.”

At that same time, with hands outstretched toward the window, she prayed and said, “Blessed are you, O Lord, merciful God, and blessed is your holy and honored name for ever. May all your works praise you for ever.

And now, O Lord, I have turned my eyes and my face toward you.

Command that I be released from the earth and that I hear reproach no more.

You know, O Lord, that I am innocent of any sin with man,

and that I did not stain my name or the name of my father in the land of my captivity. I am my father’s only child, and he has no child to be his heir, no near kinsman or kinsman’s son for whom I should keep myself as wife. Already seven husbands of mine are dead. Why should I live? But if it be not pleasing to you to take my life, command that respect be shown to me and pity be taken upon me, and that I hear reproach no more.”

At that very moment the prayer of both was heard in the presence of the glory of the great God.

And Raphael was sent to heal the two of them: to scale away the white films of Tobit’s eyes; to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel in marriage to Tobias the son of Tobit, and to bind Asmodeus the evil demon, because Tobias was entitled to possess her. At that very moment Tobit returned and entered his house and Sarah the daughter of Raguel came down from her upper room.